DUI crackdown getting underway in Sonoma County

| December 16, 2011

Sonoma County's anti-DUI task force is launching its annual, winter holiday crackdown with a DUI checkpoint planned for this weekend.

The Avoid the 13 task force also will send out teams of police officers on patrols specifically looking for DUI suspects, conducting probation and parole checks of those convicted of DUI and serving DUI warrants.

"There will be no spreading holiday cheer behind the bars of a jail cell," Petaluma Police Chief Dan Fish said in a statement. "Don't let your 2011 holiday season end in an arrest or worse, death. Remember, whether you've had way too many or just one too many, it's not worth the risk."

Petaluma Police Sgt. Ken Savano, who coordinates the task force, declined to say where this weekend's DUI checkpoint will be, saying checkpoints have the greatest effect in deterring people from drinking and driving and "I want to keep them on their toes."

The checkpoint is one of two planned during the holiday crackdown, which begins Friday and ends Jan. 2.

The Avoid the 13, which includes officers from all police agencies in the county, is funded by a grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety.